Report: Israeli Cabinet to Approve Normalizing Ties With Turkey

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The flag of Turkey. Israel’s ministerial cabinet will reportedly meet to approve a normalization agreement with Turkey. Photo: Wikipedia.

JNS.org – Israel’s ministerial cabinet will reportedly meet to approve a normalization agreement with Turkey next week, a senior government official said, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Earlier this week, it was reported that delegations from both sides—headed by Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu and a special envoy representing the Israeli prime minister, Joseph Ciechanover—are scheduled to meet June 26 to declare the restoration of ties, according to Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News.

Sources cited by the Hurriyet Daily News said that after the declaration, an agreement would be finalized and signed in July by foreign ministry undersecretaries, and relations would be officially normalized by the end of that month.

Turkish-Israeli relations broke down after the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident, in which nine Turkish militants were killed in clashes after they attacked Israeli commandos who boarded a ship that was trying to breach the blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza.

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According to reports, the two sides have met halfway on Turkey’s demand that Israel lift the blockade on Gaza. Israel, meanwhile, has accepted procedures for a hospital to be built in Gaza and has agreed to not block Turkish-distributed supplies of medicine and personnel for the hospital. Additionally, Turkey and Germany will jointly build a power plant in Gaza, and Turkey will build a desalination plant there. All Turkish aid to Gaza will be delivered through Israel’s Ashdod port.

Israel had also demanded that Turkey close Hamas’s command center and exile the Palestinian terror group from the country. But reports indicate that Turkey will not shutter the terror office, but rather will try to ensure that Hamas does not plan attacks on Israel from there.